WORST Indy novel?

TheFirebird1

Active member
whipwarrior said:
Spare yourself the agony and don?t ever touch that book. You?ll thank me later. :D
Army of the Dead can't be as terrible as the Rinzler story Mystery of Mount Sinai, could it?
The story's main villain was a poorly-written, hilariously stereotypical Nazi who shot lightning from his arm. At a certain point, it felt more like a terrible Star Wars novel that stuck Indy in it before it was vomited out onto shelves.
 

ThrowMeTheWhip

Well-known member
TheFirebird1 said:
Army of the Dead can't be as terrible as the Rinzler story Mystery of Mount Sinai, could it?
The story's main villain was a poorly-written, hilariously stereotypical Nazi who shot lightning from his arm. At a certain point, it felt more like a terrible Star Wars novel that stuck Indy in it before it was vomited out onto shelves.

The Rinzler book is fun if not a bit silly. Both the Scholastic books at least have a sense of adventure with good set pieces. Army of the Dead has none of that. The horrible slog comments are too kind? that novel is atrocious.
 

TheFirebird1

Active member
ThrowMeTheWhip said:
The Rinzler book is fun if not a bit silly. Both the Scholastic books at least have a sense of adventure with good set pieces.
Going to have to disagree with you there. The plots interlinking the two books are pretty atrocious, rehashing the whole "creepy ancient influences from space" that KotCS highlighted, characters are often useless and push the story back instead of contributing to anything (the two Italian kids, Isabella and Giovanni, were pretty much the Jar-Jars of that novel), and the villains were poorly thought out and described (whenever we meet Mephisto, he states he's a Nazi and member of Himmler's group over and over again, while also referring to Indy as a subhuman untermensch-we get it, he's a Nazi, and he's not even frightening like Toht or Vogel could be, but instead completely ridiculous). Just because a book is aimed towards a younger audience doesn't mean it has to be taxing on my brain cells.
ThrowMeTheWhip said:
Army of the Dead has none of that. The horrible slog comments are too kind? that novel is atrocious.
Never read it before, but I'll take your word on it.
 
Joosse said:
Hey Dutch Ghost.

Glad to see someone else on here who is trying to get through the Hohlbein novels!

So far I quite liked Erfenis van Avalon and Gevederde Slang. Het Godenschip left me a little underwhelmed.

When I have read the other Hohlbein novels I will have read all the Indiana Jones books.

But the worst I personally indeed find the Army of the Dead.

Apologies for not responding, I don't visit this forum very often and I forget that this forum does not give any update when there is a response to a thread I participated in.

Yeah Ship of the Gods was rather disappointing for me as well like I described in the post. Feathered Snake was okay but never really lived up for me so far I can recall.
I think the last one I read was Secret of Eastern Island. After that I just lost interest in reading more of Hohlbein.

From how you write I assume you find it a challenge as well to get through these books? I hate to say it but I found some rather underwhelming or even boring.

Recently I have been checking out stories of a pulp hero somewhat similar to Indiana Jones called Athena Voltaire. It is not as strong as the Indy stories when they are on their best but it is a good alternative if you have read all the Indy comics.


TheFirebird1 said:
Army of the Dead can't be as terrible as the Rinzler story Mystery of Mount Sinai, could it?
The story's main villain was a poorly-written, hilariously stereotypical Nazi who shot lightning from his arm. At a certain point, it felt more like a terrible Star Wars novel that stuck Indy in it before it was vomited out onto shelves.

I actually kind of liked Mephisto even if he is over the top, I found him a lot more iconic than a lot of the other villains in the books even if he is a cartoonish stereotype.
The arm is rather Science! than real science but I could accept it.

The plot was indeed a retread of elements from KOTCS regarding by suggesting aliens/advanced alien technology again, and even a little Fate of Atlantis regarding the metal or material the Nazis were looking for, this time a source of anti gravity instead of energy.

Still I would not mind if Indy faced Helmut von Mephisto again.

In general I enjoyed the Scholastic Young Adult books more than a lot of the regular books.
 
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TennesseeSmith

New member
I read all of the Bantam novels, as they were published. As is sadly the case so many times, they were more of a money-making venture to capitalize on popularity than a high-quality addition to the franchise. Secret of the Sphinx brought the whole series to a crashing end. It was short and truly awful.

Army of the Dead? I will never waste my time....
 

ThrowMeTheWhip

Well-known member
Having just reread all of them… Secret of the Sphinx is one of the better ones. Not getting the hate there.

Army of the Dead, the two Caidin books and Interior World are far and away the worst. Interior World is at least a fairly brisk read, though. The same can’t be said for AotD or either of Caidin’s offerings. True drudgery.
 

emtiem

Well-known member
I don't really understand how these guys generally made it look so hard to write Indy novels.
 

propstar

Well-known member
It does seem the best thing about the novels are Drew Struzan's cover art.
The cover art for the German books were made by an Italian artist named Berni. Not the Struzan style but I like them very much


M03442097266-large.jpg
 

metalinvader

Well-known member
The Caiden novels are awful,Sky Pirates especially. White Witch was a little better but not by much.

It's been years since I've read Army of the Dead but I remember having fun reading it.
 

Moedred

Administrator
Staff member
Interior World are far and away the worst. Interior World is at least a fairly brisk read, though.
As I noted reviewing The Mata Hari Affair:
"Verdun wasn't so much an overworked mine as it was a labyrinth out of Greek myths. Except that the fabled Minotaur was on the outside." Hmm, maybe Interior World was not just a long drug trip, but also a WWI flashback for Indy?
 
Having just reread all of them… Secret of the Sphinx is one of the better ones. Not getting the hate there.

Army of the Dead, the two Caidin books and Interior World are far and away the worst. Interior World is at least a fairly brisk read, though. The same can’t be said for AotD or either of Caidin’s offerings. True drudgery.
I agree. I did like secret of the sphinx. It did have that weird leftover time travel stuff but other than that I liked it. Same wavelength as you on the others. AotD def the worst. The Caiden books not good.
 

British Raider

Well-known member
I finished Rob MacGregor’s the Unicorns Legacy this week. I’d put it off thinking it would be one of the worst. There’s something about unicorns that put me off immediately. However, while it shares many of the issues that are found in all these books, I enjoyed it a fair bit. It wrapped up a bit too quickly, but the build up and mystery had me page turning and I didn’t see some of the character twists coming. Also, I’m a bit more open to the spirituality than I think some might be.
 
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